Milk Vetch Added to Endangered Species List
As expected, federal regulators at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have placed the Ventura marsh milk vetch on the endangered species list.
The plant, once thought to be extinct, was rediscovered in 1997 in Oxnard on the site of a proposed 334-unit housing development called North Shore at Mandalay Bay.
It is a thick-rooted, reddish-stemmed member of the pea family found only on the site, which is targeted for a cleanup of waste oil. In 1997, 374 plants were counted on the site.
After lawsuits by several environmental organizations, the developer agreed to provide a 10-acre reserve around the plants and to set up off-site populations.
The state Department of Fish and Game is working with the Fish and Wildlife Service to collect seeds from the remaining plants to establish new populations, but that effort is considered an experiment.
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